Virtual superstar Sean McCorkle adjusting to fame in real world following UFC win

http://mmajunkie.comIn the space of a few days, Sean McCorkle (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) has gone from Internet famous to real-life famous.

The Indianapolis-based heavyweight seized the opportunity of a lifetime with a submission victory over PRIDE and K-1 veteran Mark Hunt at this past Saturday’s UFC 119.

“After the fight, I hoped I wouldn’t wake up and realize I’d been knocked out and it was all just a dream,” McCorkle told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

But just as he woke up seven weeks ago after a night of drunken revelry with a UFC contract on the table, the roar of 15,000-plus fans made it pretty clear he wasn’t dreaming.

“I’ve taken a lot of pictures with drunk idiots,” McCorkle said of his life since the win. “I’ve had a lot of people grab me and smack me on the back that I didn’t really want touching me. A lot of sluts trying to sleep with me, and about 6,000 people a day text me [where] I don’t know how they got my number.”

So far, these sound like good problems. But McCorkle said he’s not fighting to get attention, though his sarcastic Internet personality – cultivated from years posting in online forums – might indicate otherwise.

“I don’t like how everybody that I went to high school with is all of a sudden my best friend, and I haven’t seen or heard from them in 15 years,” he said.

Of course, not all of the attention was positive. One person he targeted on the web, nine-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes, gave him the cold shoulder at UFC 119’s weigh-ins.

“He didn’t look like he was in any mood to talk to me, so I kind of let it go,” McCorkle said.

Then there were some of his “friends” who bet against other friends that Hunt would destroy him.

“There’s a guy taking bets from anybody that would do it that I was going to lose,” he said. “I came to find out everyone thought I was going to lose. It’s like, ‘You guys know I’m really big, really fast, and really athletic?’ Even if I have no standup and no wrestling, I’m a really good athlete for my size.”

As it turns out, McCorkle’s size and speed proved to be the deciding factor in the fight. When the action hit the mat, he quickly locked in a kimura and cranked it so hard it may have dislocated Hunt’s elbow (Hunt tapped out shortly after his arm bent in an unnatural way).

So the UFC newcomer can’t really complain, especially if he’s being well-compensated.

“Some people live for the attention,” he said. “I’m kind of more into the money. I’m a quarter Jewish, so you can’t blame me.”

McCorkle shocked his manager when he said he wouldn’t accept a UFC contract unless the money was right. With almost 60 pounds to cut – he’s fought the bulk of his career at super heavyweight – he wanted it to be worth his while.

“The cut was an absolute nightmare, and the commission scales were off the morning of the weigh-in,” McCorkle said. “I told them that and the commission said they weren’t. I said I couldn’t possibly be three pounds heavier [on the day of weigh-ins] than I was last night when I didn’t eat or drink anything.

“So I went to cut an extra three pounds that morning. It took me two hours to cut the weight. Then I weighed in at 263 pounds and I wanted to strangle somebody.”

Sadly, he saw a bonus for “Submission of the Night” fly out the door when middleweight C.B. Dollaway submitted Joe Doerksen with a slick guillotine further up on the card. That money would have been “life changing,” but he’s also hopeful it won’t matter that he lost out on the disclosed bonus.

“Everybody I talked to said the UFC takes really good care of fighters, and everybody gets a bonus on pay-per-view,” McCorkle said. “I know a guy who got a check for $100,000 when he was scheduled to make $11,000, and he didn’t even get any bonus for ‘Submission of the Night’ or ‘Fight of the Night.’

“I’ve got my fingers crossed, but if not, I agreed to fight for the contract. If I performed terribly, I wouldn’t want to give any of my stack they paid me to show. They don’t owe me anything.”

McCorkle said he’d like a minimum of three months to bolster his wrestling and striking skills and guesses he’ll be back inside the octagon in January 2011.

His Internet personality needs no rest, though, and fans can find him online cracking wise.

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